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Fhatuwani Mukheli to exhibit at expo Chicago with new collection " Black Figuration"

As one of South Africa’s most exciting contemporary and multi-disciplinary artists, Fhatuwani Mukheli continues his rise to global fame with a major new milestone: this April, in partnership with Gallery MOMO, he will be exhibiting his latest body of work at EXPO CHICAGO, one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs under the Frieze umbrella. Mukheli’s bold new collection reimagines black representation with style references to classic,Greco–Roman and Renaissance techniques.

The presentation at EXPO CHICAGO exposes his work to a new global audience in a city that is artistically significant and creatively forward-facing. For Mukheli, Chicago feels like an apt setting. It’s a city with deep cultural and intellectual roots, home to one of the world’s most respected art institutions and historically connected to South Africans in exile during apartheid. That layered backdrop gives the exhibition an added resonance, especially as African voices and perspectivescontinue to claim space in global art conversations. Drawing leading contemporary galleries,collectors and curators into one sphere, EXPO CHICAGO will show his work to an audience with anenergetic appetite for new talent and perspectives.

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Odysseus Shirindza – Director of MOMO, says that he is excited to be working with Mukheli. “We’vebeen observing the progression of Fhatuwani’s work and his refreshing take on black representation and figuration. In his exploration of BLACK FIGURATION, Fhatuwani inserts black bodies into classical art in his own artistic interpretation, which is not brutal but has tenderness and care. His executionof figures in moments of rest, in quiet and space, reimagines in the present and into the future what the past could’ve been. His work is shaping a new society, it changes the conversation about what it means to be African and represented in spaces, it challenges notions of contemporary African art. Fhatuwani is never in the mould of what people expect because his work is intellectually challenging.

”For Mukheli, the moment is about more than visibility. “The idea for this collection came from a deep reflection on art history, particularly the Renaissance, and the realization that black bodies were largely excluded from it. I began to imagine what it would look like if we placed African figure sat the centre of that visual language. This body of work is my way of reclaiming space within that canon, reinterpreting classical compositions, gestures, and symbolism through an African lens. It’s about presence, dignity, and rewriting narratives that historically left us out,” he explains.

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The result is a striking body of work in oil on Belgian linen canvas, with titles such as Black Caesar, African Venus, The Year of the Horse, Ascension of the Rider and Guardian of the Threshold. Theworks are mostly created as square compositions, either 100 x 100 cm or 120 x 120 cm, giving them a monumental quality. Two dominant colour worlds run through the collection: a monochromatic palette that nods to Renaissance art, and a rich red that speaks to Mukheli’s Venda roots and the redsoil of Limpopo.

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